234 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



MORNING RATION. 



Three mornings of the week, cut green bones ; the other three mornings, a warm 

 ma^h. The green bones were got from the butcher shops and were cut up by a bone 

 cutting machine, run by power. The mash was composed of shorts, ground oats, ground 

 barley, ground rye, wheat bran, steamed lawn clippings, or steamed clover hay, the 

 latter cut into short lengths. The lawn clippings and clover hay were prepared by 

 placing the quantity thought sufficient, into a pot, containing boiling water, the night 

 previous and allowing it to steam all night. The mash was mixed with boiling water. 

 Sometimes for a change boiled turnips, or small potatoes were mixed into the mash. 



On Sunday morning whole grain was usually fed. 



NO NOON RATION. 



No noon ration was given, but mangels, turnips and cabbage were before the 

 fowls, all the time. 



AFTERNOON RATION. 



Whole grain, wheat or buckwheat, principally the lattei* while it lasted. Some- 

 times oats were mixed with the buckwheat, more frequently so in late spring and early 

 summer. 



QUANTITY FED. 



The cut green bones were fed in the proportion of one pound to every fifteen hens. 

 The mash in quantities of one quart to every twenty, or twenty-five hens. This may 

 seem a small ration, but reasons for it are given further on. The afternoon meal was 

 20 pounds of wheat, or buckwheat, to 204 fowls. 



WHAT WAS AIMED AT. 



The aim in feeding the above rations was : — 



1. To avoid an overfat condition. 



2. To incite the layers to greater activity. 



3. To convey lime for shell in form of cut green bone ration. 



4. To furnish a greater quantity of green stuflF. 



5. To have as much variety in rations as possible. 



6. To avoid many of the ills and vicious propensities noted in former years. 



HOW OVERFEEDING WAS AVOIDED. 



There was no hard and fast rule, as to the frequency with which the cut green bone 

 was fed. When the hens were laying well a little would be fed, perhaps, every morning 

 On such times no mash was used. Immediately after the morning ration a few hands- 

 full of grain were thrown in the litter on the floor of the pens, so as to start the hens 

 busily searching for it. Great care was taken in feeding the mash. Experience has 

 proved that the overfeeding of the morning mash is the rock on which many farmers 

 and poultry keepers are wrecked, in their eagerness to obtain eggs in winter. Experi- 

 ence has proved that disastrous results will surely follow the overfeeding of the morning 

 ration of whatever kind. Particular mention is made of the mash, because it is so 

 generally fed. It must not be inferred that objection is taken to the mash. It is 

 useful and convenient in utilizing the waste of table, kitchen and barn, but it must not 

 be overfed. The object in reducing and limiting the quantity of the soft mash, is to 

 prevent the possibility of gorging the laying stock, at the early meal and so have them 

 disinclined for the exercise, so requisite. 



